~ By Tom Boggie

Let’s call today’s column “The good, the bad and the ugly.”

You can’t sum up Albany-Saratoga Speedway’s opening night in one word, so I’m using three.

The ugly is easy. That was the weather. It couldn’t have been much worse. But promoter Lyle DeVore was determined to get his first race of the season in, no matter what. When I drove from Schenectady to Malta late in the afternoon, it rained most of the way. While drivers kept their cars in their haulers, DeVore and his crew were out on the track, and had the surface just about race-ready by 5:30 p.m. when more rain started to fall. As a result, racing didn’t begin until 7:30. There were still some soft spots in the racing surface, and water accumulated on the insides of turns two and four, and just for fun, there was a nasty wind blowing for most of the night. But the only thing ugly about opening night was the weather.

Let’s get on to the good. Stewart Friesen and Marc Johnson were both feeling pretty good after their one-two finish in the modified feature. Johnson nearly got the lead away from Friesen on a lap 27 restart, but got into the water in turn four, made contact with Friesen and had to back out of the throttle to keep the car straight.

I was impressed with the way Friesen changed his line going through one and two after the final yellow came out on lap 29. Friesen started diamonding the corner (is diamonding even a word?), which was giving him a big run coming out of two, enough to leave Johnson comfortably behind him.

“I was just trying to hit clean laps,” said Friesen after the race, explaining his line through one and two.

The last time Friesen was at Malta, he won the Super DIRTcar Series race on Malta Massive Weekend to end the 2023 season. But because of all the rain last Friday, he couldn’t really rely on the notes he had from previous races.

“That’s the great thing about dirt track racing. It’s always different,” he said. “That’s why it’s fun to race on dirt. There was a rut in one and two, and more wetness than we’re used to, but it was fun out there tonight.”

Anyone who’s spent any time around Johnson after he doesn’t win knows he can be a little surly, so I was stunned when he said the car felt good after his second-place run last weekend.

“Everybody was fast, so it was hard to pass,” he said. “But for what we were dealt, I thought the track was decent. We were a bit tight in hot laps so we made some changes and freed it up a little. But I think that’s why I got into the water.”

Jack Speshock also belongs on the good side of the ledger after his fourth-place finish on opening night. Speshock started 13th and made the most of the long green-flag run early in the race to come away with his best opening-night result ever.

Speshock is only in his fourth full season of big block racing, and Friday’s performance was just his ninth top-five finish. After recording three runner-up finishes during the 2022 season, he notched his first career win last year and if Friday night was any indication, he’ll be challenging for No. 2 this year.

Now, on to the bad. It was definitely a bad night for some former champions.

Defending modified champion Demetrios Drellos only ran four laps of the modified feature before something in the rear end broke. He finished last in the 28-car field. Drellos had looked good in his heat race, coming from eighth to finish fourth.

Four-time sportsman champion Tim Hartman Jr. didn’t even make the feature. Last year, DeVore was running double features for the sportsman because of the large number of cars in that division. This year, instead of paying two full purses, DeVore has gone back to a B main, with the top four finishers transferring into the 25-lap feature.

Hartman Jr. got a lousy draw when he got to the track, started mid-pack in his heat race and failed to get a transfer spot. He was one of 20 cars in the B main and came from deep in the field to finish fifth, missing the transfer by one spot.

A total of 45 sportsman cars ran in heat races, and 29 started the feature. Obviously, finishing good in a heat race is going to be crucial this season.

Then, there was Rob Yetman, who won back-to-back pro stock titles in 2013 and 2014. Yetman didn’t race much last year, but during the offseason, Joe Lazzaro bought him a car and he was back on Friday night. He started on the pole in his heat, led the first two laps and then something broke in the engine compartment, creating a cloud of smoke, and he was done for the night.

AROUND THE TRACKS

The Friday card at Albany-Saratoga will feature an appearance by the RUSH late models, which will be running on a weekly basis at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park this season. It should be noted that Friday’s appearance will not be the RUSH Touring Series. It will probably include a handful of area drivers who have joined RUSH this season, including Drellos, Derrick McGrew Jr. and Rob Pitcher. I’m sure that former sportsman driver Brock “Bam Bam” Pinkerous will also have his late model at the track. Pinkerous, who turned 14 in February, finished second in last weekend’s RUSH Touring Series race at Pittsburgh Motor Speedway and earned $2,000.

Robert Bublak Jr. has changed his number again. After running the No. 6 last year, he’s switched to 27 this season, in honor of his late father, Robert Sr., who was the crew chief on Mike Ballestero’s No. 27 during some of Ballestero’s best seasons at Malta.

Hall of Fame car owner “Dover” Dave Cruickshank died last Saturday at the age of 92. Cruickshank owned the Dover Brake-sponsored Double-Zero that Buzzie Reutimann made famous in the 1970s. One of the other drivers who sat behind the wheel of the Double-Zero modified in later years was former Fonda Speedway champion Bobby Varin.

Varin won one of the Triple 20-lap heat races during Super DIRT Week in 2012 in the Double-Zero and after the win, told reporters, “This is epic for me. It gives me more joy to give (Cruickshank) a gift like this than anything else. I feel honored to be the only driver to run a Double-Zero car for Dave other than Buzzie.”

Drellos wants to forget opening weekend. After his problems at Malta last Friday, he went to Utica-Rome on Sunday and got caught up in a wreck. Two starts, two DNFs.

Lebanon Valley Speedway will be kicking off its 72nd season of racing Saturday night while Glen Ridge has a tech and practice session on Sunday, with practice scheduled to start at 2 p.m.